LES and Beryl Lailey celebrated their golden anniversary . . . by tucking into a 50-year-old tin of chicken they were given on their wedding day.

The former soldier was given the tin of Buxted Chicken as part of a wedding gift hamper when he tied the knot with Beryl back in 1956.

It has remained in the kitchen cupboard of the couple's Manchester home ever since.

As the Laileys marked 50 years of marriage this month, Les decided it was the right moment to take out the tin and eat its contents as a token of their love.

Les, 73, said: "When we got married I'd just come out of the Army and we had very little money, so we did our own buffet.

"We got a hamper as a present and included in it was this whole chicken in a tin. We didn't use it and packed it away and kept it."

The couple bought their first house together for é200 and whenever they moved home, the can of chicken - considered a real delicacy in post-war Britain - went with them.

"We kept it safe," said Les, "and I always said `on my 50th wedding anniversary I'm going to eat that chicken' - so I did!"

The pensioner says that he has not suffered any ill effects since sampling the decades-old bird which, he added, was good and tasted just like . . . chicken.

Letters

Now living on Keddlestone Walk in Denton, Les and Beryl have three children, four grandchildren and a great-grandchild on the way.

The pair first met at an Irish pub in Hulme at an event organised by Beryl's aunt.

Les said: "I was in the Argyll and Southern Highlanders' regiment and had to wear a kilt.

"I had to go back to the Army almost straight after we met, but we kept in touch by writing letters. I came home and we got married."

Buxted Chicken was a firm set up in the 1950s by former Second World War fighter pilot Anthony Fisher, who introduced the factory farming of chickens to Britain.

The brand continues to this day. Three different companies have purchased the Buxted name and use it to sell fresh and frozen products.

Texture

Tinned food usually has a maximum shelf life of three years, although the US Army has found that tinned meats can be in "excellent states of preservation" after nearly 50 years. The Food Standards Agency says that tinned food will start to lose quality and texture after its "best before" date, but may still be safe to eat.

Prof Eunice Taylor, a food safety expert at the University of Salford, said: "Canned food can last indefinitely if it has been sealed properly, although the normal shelf life is about six months.

"If it's done at high temperatures and under high pressure, then the process should create a tight vacuum. If anyone is going to eat old canned food, I would suggest they heat it thoroughly first of all, just in case to be extra safe."

The tin did not have a best before date, as these were not universally introduced until the 1960s. Canned food more than 100 years old has been found in sunken ships and has still been found to be biologically safe to eat.